Modern hospitals are generally equipped with nurse call systems, which include various devices located throughout the hospital through which patients and/or nurses are able to communicate over a network (typically an internal hospital network) with one or more centralized nurse stations. One of the components of these nurse call systems is a wall-mounted device located close to a patient bed, which provides various functionality to the patient including, for example, two-way communication hardware that allows for a call to be placed to a nurse station by pushing a button. An accessory remote, designed to be held by the patient, may also be connected to the wall-mounted device and provide similar and/or additional functions (either independently or in combination with the wall-mounted device), including, for example, two-way communication functions as well as remote control over a television in the hospital room.
The accessory remote is sometimes referred to as a “pillow speaker.” The Rauland-Borg Responder® line of products includes examples of such pillow speaker devices.